Mountain Voices | The Changing World of Recreation and Rescue in the White Mountains with Christine Woodside, Christopher Joosen, and Michael Wejchert

This panel will focus on how accident response in addition to frequency and severity in the White Mountains has changed over our lifetimes featuring three different perspectives on recreation and rescue. The panel will feature Michael Wejchert who is a writer, Mountain Rescue Service board member and climber, Christine Woodside who is editor of Appalachia Journal and Accidents Reports, and Christopher Joosen, Retired Mt Washington Avalanche Center Director. The panel will be moderated by Joe Klementovich.

This lecture will be facilitated on Zoom ONLY. To receive a link, please register HERE. 

Since moving to North Conway in 2008, Michael Wejchert has interacted with the White Mountains in various ways: as a carpenter maintaining above-tree line huts, as a climbing guide, as a journalist and essayist, and as a team leader of the all-volunteer Mountain Rescue Service. He has written about adventure in New Hampshire and abroad for Appalachia, Summit Journal, Adventure Journal, Alpinist, Outside, Yankee, the New York Times, and many other publications. His first book, Hidden Mountains, about a climbing accident in Alaska, won a National Outdoor Book Award in 2023.

Christine Woodside is a writer and (since 2006) editor-in-chief of Appalachia journal. She has edited four Accidents department editors, two anthologies of Appalachia essays, and was the developmental editor for the AMC title Desperate Steps: Life, Death, and Choices Made in the Mountains of the Northeast. She hiked the entire Appalachian Trail at age 28 and since then has covered a few thousand more trail miles, alone and with others, mostly in the Northeast. Her book Going Over the Mountain: One Woman’s Journey from Follower to Solo Hiker and Back was published in 2023 by Appalachian Mountain Club Books. Her earlier book Libertarians on the Prairie looks at the political underpinnings of the Little House books for children. Her recent pieces include one for Yankee about black bears in Connecticut and a review of the status of bobcats for Mongabay. Visit her at chriswoodside.com.

Accidents reports in the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Appalachia journal have always examined the clash of expectations with reality. In this era of accelerated climate change, the journal’s popular section also reflects the growing risks from winter thaw-freeze cycles that have become the norm in the 21^st century. We will look at reports from the period 2000-2024 of accidents caused or worsened by winter thaws and freezes. They will include falls on ice and slush, avalanches, sudden flooding that trapped hikers between dangerous streams, gear mistakes, and attitude changes. The editors of the Accidents report combined their own mountain experience with interviews from rescue and safety professionals. Their narratives of the age of climate change reflect more intense dangers and people’s sometimes emotional responses to them.